The newest, most advanced way to look at the heart

With swift advancements in medical technology, the newest and world’s fastest CT scanner is now available at Decatur Memorial Hospital – the GE LightSpeed.

64-Slice VCT. The VCT Scanner is being used to perform Coronary Angiograms by the team of DMH Radiologist, Jon Locke, M.D. and DMH Cardiologist Madhu Jyothinagaram, M.D.

A VCT (Volumn Computed Tomography) Coronary Angiogram is a medical diagnostic tool that allows the visualization of the heart and coronary arteries in the human body by using a combination of X-rays and computer enhancement of those X-ray images. The completely NON-INVASIVE scan aids physicians in diagnosing heart disease by viewing internal abnormalities, allowing them to be able to assess possible damage. DMH’s new 64-slice scanner offers the latest and most dynamically enhanced procedure available to the medical community, without pain, and faster than ever before.

During a typical VCT Coronary Angiogram, the patient is placed on a table that moves them through a gantry (a donut-shaped device) which houses an X-ray tube and detector array. The X-ray tube rotates around the patient and with that single rotation the system creates 64 credit card-thin images which a computer then processes and displays, almost instantaneously, on a computer screen. The images can be viewed as a single ½ millimeter slice (analogous to a single slice of bread from a loaf) or as a whole three-dimensional model of the heart and coronary arteries, which can be measured, correlated and rotated in any direction. When physicians are analyzing the heart and coronary arteries, the VCT scan, with its unique capabilities, avoids any superimposition of other organs or tissues that could obscure the area during other types of X-ray studies.

Dr. Locke and Dr. Jyothinagaram work together to obtain and analyze the VCT scans of a patient’s heart and coronary arteries. The VCT can capture the entire area in fewer than five heartbeats, something no other CT system has been able to offer them before. Heart motion has historically made CT cardiovascular scans challenging, but now each scan can be done during the time when the heart is at rest for a fraction of a second, between beats, in a total of 5 seconds. This now eliminates heart motion which previously caused problems in obtaining sharp images.

Now, when patients come into the emergency room with acute pain the doctors, all in one scan, can quickly check for evidence of heart attack, pulmonary embolism or aortic dissection, the three most life-threatening causes of chest pain. "A VCT Angiogram is now a very powerful tool that can be used in the decision making process for determining appropriate treatment for a patient," Dr. Locke said. "The GE LightSpeed 64-Slice scanner is state-of-the-art medical equipment, and Decatur Memorial Hospital is one of the first 60 hospitals in the U.S. to be able to offer this to our patients."

In addition, a patient can be examined painlessly with VCT for plaque assessment, to determine if they are in need of treatment, BEFORE they exhibit any pain at all. "A Calcium Heart Score test has previously been used to determine the presence of plaque in a patient’s coronary arteries. The new VCT scan goes beyond what a simple Calcium Score will show us," said Dr. Jyothinagaram. "It is the newest device used to aid in EARLY detection of coronary artery disease."

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